Peter Boyle -- X Marks The Spot

A friend of mine once dated Peter Boyle.

Three steps to the X-Files. 

Five steps to the cockroaches, any of them in the jar. 

Liza Minelli -- Splash!

One move:

The great star did not sue the Seattle Sheraton hotel where Dan worked as a security officer after the penthouse swimming pool collapsed through her ceiling and soaked her as she slept. 

The swimming pool is now on the ground floor.

Speaking of Bacon

More links to Bacon.

Kevin, not so much.   Thank you, one of my bros; the bacon fanatic.

The Halls of Power -- Kennedy and LBJ

Dan, in school, met Senator John Sherman Cooper, ambassador to Great Britain -- who was appointed by John Kennedy.

Also appointed by Lyndon Johnson.

Who do you want us to influence?  We come cheap.

Buster Keaton -- The Eternal Career.

Again, Don Taylor, from Stalag 17, whose hand Dan shook as a child -- director Billy Wilder -- Buster Keaton, one of the "waxworks" in Sunset Boulevard.

This is four steps to Richard Lester, Gloria Swanson, Cecille B. DeMille and William Holden -- whom we already have at three steps from Stalag 17.  

Four steps to Charlie Chaplin.

Four steps to anybody in A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To The Forum: Zero Mostel, Phil Silvers and Michael Crawford.

Crawford gives us 6 steps to John Lennon, in How I won the War.  But that's not five-step Tournament Level.  We'll have to get Lennon another way.  Hmmmm......

John Kennedy is 6, too, and doesn't fit the handicap.   We'll do that one later.

The Chinese Finger Trap -- Wagon Master From Both Ends

Left forefinger trapped:  My friend and colleague Jim Groat (extra in Tombstone) -- actor Harry Carey Jr.  -- director John Ford -- Wagonmaster.

Right forefinger trapped:  Our friend Angela Rhoads -- her father, in December 7 -- director John Ford -- Wagonmaster.  

Angela's is shorter. She wins!  No, there are no prizes.

Birth of a Link -- D. W. Griffith

Dan -- friend Angela Rhoads -- her father in December 7th, directed by John Ford -- Ford acted in Birth of a Nation -- directed by D.W. Griffith.

Four steps (We count back to either Dan or me.  It's five to me, but Dan's the other half of the team.  Our KBG, our rules).

Bela Lagosi -- SNAP!

Once again, Magic Portal Don Taylor gets us to the Man of Tooth.

As a little kid, Dan shook hands with Don Taylor, Lt. Dunbar in Stalag 17 -- directed by Billy Wilder, who wrote the screenplay for Ninotchka -- in which Bela Lagosi plays a Russian commissar.

Three steps.  THREE STEPS.

Four steps to director DeMille, actor Boris Karloff, director Ed Wood, psychic Criswell, and Ed Wood's dentist.

On Fire -- Rebecca DeMornay

A colleague says he can get us to Rebecca DeMornay.

We're already there.  Dan helped Donald Southerland get into his own hotel room at the Seattle Sheraton, when the actor couldn't get his key card to work.  Southerland was in Backdraft, with DeMornay.  TWO steps.


Southerland wanted to show the security officer his ID card (all great artists doubt their own fame or importance), but Dan said, "Mr. Southerland, I think I know who you are."  Southerland gave him THE SMILE.  


A lot of entertainment industry bodies sifted through the Sheraton, so there are a lot of links there.

Magic Portal Link

A "Magic Portal" is somebody who gets you to the whole film industry, or at least an entire era in that industry.


Johnny Depp is a Magic Portal, at least for us.  Get a short link to him, know a whole side of the industry.  For example, it's Makah people - Johnny Depp -- Alan Rickman - the whole Kevin Smith and Harry Potter crew.


Of course Kevin Bacon is a magic portal.  And Don Taylor, who played Lt. Dunbar in Stalag 17.  Dan met him as a kid, so we have a portal that opens up to Billy Wilder (who can get you to Gary Cooper and Fay Wray).  In the same number of moves we get to Selznick -- who is definitely an MP.


I told you this was tournament level.  We have terms and definitions.

How Devine -- Sieg Heil

Andy Devine -- was raised by my brother-in-law's family.  Two moves. 


That's an urban-legend link:  "my friend," or "my sister-in-law" or "my mother's brother's first wife's first cousin" (which, by the way, is Leni Riefenstahl).  This gets me to Hitler in five (under the tournament level limit).


Next entry, we'll define an MP (magic portal) link.

Johnny Depp -- Two jumps, Too Easy.

I got this one by moving to Clallam Bay, near the Makah Nation.

Johnny Depp was in Dead Man.  Many Makah were extras in the village scene.  I see these people all the time.

This gives me or Dan three steps to:  Jerry Bruckheimer, Geoffrey Rush -- hell, anybody in a pirate movie -- and 'allo 'allo.   Yup, that's Leutnant Gruber on the dock as Depp steps off his sinking dinghy. There was serious screaming in this household and much reversing of the DVD when we recognized him.  Oh, and who else wanted to see what he and his little smarty-eyebrowed sidekick got into, later in the series?

Smoke and Mirrors -- James Arness

Dan has made me into as big a movie geek as he is.  We started playing the KBG about two years ago, and recently it's gotten to the state that we start trying to trace the links to everybody in a movie.  This blog isn't really for you or the average modern film geek -- most of these movies and tv shows are old -- but to keep a record for us.  Neither of us is so young any more (oh, hell, we're old), and I really can't play this with anybody else.  It's in the black template so it will look like movie credits.

This particular jump sequence is easy.  At Emerald City Comicon, I stood near where Leonard Nimoy was signing autographs and looked upon him long enough for those little light waves to register.  This is a loose or sloppy link (no direct conversation or interaction), so our connection to James Arness isn't difficult or distant.  We start easy, so future posts will be more insane.

James Arness the hard way:  my husband Dan Barr - our friend Angela Rhoads - Angela's father, who was in the Pearl Harbor documentary December 7th - the director John Ford - the actor James Arness, whom Ford directs as the idiot Klegg brother in Wagonmaster.

I'm not going to count Nimoy for Boston Legal because I got that years ago watching George Takai play ping-pong.